


Harbor

by engineDriver



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-Canon, is it more difficult to say hello or goodbye?, sadfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 16:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18077240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engineDriver/pseuds/engineDriver
Summary: "Some words are said not because they are true but because they can heal."____When she sailed away from Novis Harbor, Genny couldn't wait to return to the security of the priory. After Celica's coronation, she isn't sure if she is ready to say hello again.





	Harbor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OrangeBlossoms](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeBlossoms/gifts).



After a long reprieve, the gusts pummel the ship again. Crew members scramble on the deck, the captain barking orders to steer the keel away. 

Mae cries out next to Genny and Boey, clinging to both of their cloaks. Genny, supporting them together, grabs onto the rail. The salty gusts sting her face, the small cuts in her wind-worn lips.

The small crew struggles to right the ship’s course. Boey yells at Mae to calm down, which only encourages her to yell back at him. Genny’s face scrunches up, shrinking between them and the battering winds. 

A warmer, but forceful gale surges over her head, rattling her curls and pushing the frigid winds away from their huddle. Genny turns to find Sonya, hand raised, forming the barrier behind them. Bashfully, she jerks her head away. Mae releases an over-dramatic sigh.

“Sonya, you saved my life!”

Genny, eyes still downcast, doesn’t hear the woman respond. The cries from the crew die down, finally managing to budge the stubborn rudder away from the storm. 

“Well, that should do it,” Sonya clicks her tongue. Her heels on the planks emulate the sound as she walks away from the group.

Boey and Mae deflate in relief, sagging against the rail. Quickly, they resume their conversation about Celica’s coronation, the popular topic of their week-long voyage. Mae, beaming, recalls how wonderfully her friend’s hair stayed up throughout the ceremony, not a curl springing out, and all thanks to the hours she spent taming it that morning.

Genny listens on in half interest, eyes roaming the ocean while avoiding the back half of the ship. The soupy air around the hull thins, slowly unveiling the land ahead, shimmering and flossy like the golden taffeta that covered Queen Anthiese’s coronation dress. The haziest outline of Novis emerges and the crew cries out in joy.

“Land ho! Harbor ahead!”

Genny gulps. 

More than a year had passed since since their crew of five embarked on a much tinier boat. Celica, blustery and optimistic, driving their small gang on the tailwinds of a mission much larger than the simple pilgrimage they conceived. Watching the coastline of Novis shrink behind her, Genny sulked against the stern. Heroines pined for great adventures, but after finally getting the chance to live out one of her novels, all she wished for was to return home. 

And now, after sailing over the ocean and traversing hundreds of miles through swamps, dungeons, and deserts, she is finally making the journey back. 

A familiar uneasiness pits in her stomach.

The ship slicing through the sea shakes the small schooner, each wave it pulls back revealing another detail of Novis Harbor. The lantern in the lighthouse dutifully spins in rotation. Rows of townhouses and shops. The sun, slyly winking through the grey clouds, glinting onto their red clay tile roofs. Cloudy sheep dotted on a grassy cliff, like the ones Genny practiced reading to from her story books or Mother Mila’s texts. She was never sure if they enjoyed her reading, but she took their baas as ones of approval. Trailing beyond those green fields, the orchard where she picked apples and chased after her friends, who occasionally let their younger companion capture them. They sang hymns together on their return at dusk, soft voices connecting linked hands, where the dome of Novis Priory stood sentinel. Where, as she can see, still stands.

Everything still in its place. Almost.

The cheery roundness of the onion dome once greeted Genny like an old friend when she returned after her excursions, inviting her to sit by its hearth. But now, the sight of the Priory tower growing impossibly tall in the horizon, sharp finial slicing into the storm clouds, almost topples Genny over. Her back lurches upwards, immobilized, too fearful to face the harbor ahead or to turn around.

“Hey, kid. This is you, isn’t it?”

Genny freezes. The click of heels echoing towards her right side. Elbows rest on the railing, gloved hands clasped together.

“Wow. It’s beautiful.”

Genny nods meekly, eyes turned to her hands.  
“You grew up here, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes.” 

“Mmm.” Sonya’s lower lip curls. “You’re so lucky to be returning to a place like this. Sure beats sleeping in a tent.”

The girl tucks her chin into the cowl of her dress.

Sonya cocks her head to the left, “That’s a pretty big tower over there. Large priory for such a small island, huh?”

She frowns when Genny doesn’t respond. Sighing, she picks at the hem of her glove.

“Hey, Genny… what are you planning to do when you get back?”

“I, I’ll be going back to the priory.”

“Well, I knew that as much, but there’s got to be more than that. What are you looking forward to doing? What’s one thing you missed doing the most that you couldn’t do anywhere else on our journey?”

Genny bites her lip.

“I miss… getting to sleep in.”

Genny remembers waking in her tent to Est’s snores and occasional sleep talking, telling a Minerva to duck out of the way, she’ll save her.

“...I miss eating warm steak pies and apple tarts.”

The hunting party, led by Leon, Atlas, and Palla, triumphantly dragging a boar behind them to spit and roast, the rich smell of its flesh crackling and charring. The party gathering around to laugh and feast around the bonfire.

“I miss taking showers with clean water.” (Sonya chuckles)

Mae passes her the remainder of the skein, Genny waving her hands in refusal. Her friend gently shoves it into her chest with a “what are pals for?” The hot water quenches her swollen throat.

Genny bows her head. “I- I miss getting to work on my stories.”

Both on watch by the evening fire, Genny finds the courage to share her ideas for a story about a brave heroine while Sonya listens on, occasionally interrupting to offer her suggestions to the narrative. Genny takes her nods as signs of approval. 

Sonya’s eyes brighten.

“Genny… you should work on your stories. You have a real talent, kid. I really mean that, everyone’s going to be reading your books. And I know how excited you get when you talk about them, you can hardly keep your mouth shut.”

Genny sniffles and Sonya’s smile flattens.

“Hey… no. Don’t cry,” her voice drops, “Don’t be sad, look at all of the time you’ll have now to write the stories you told me.”

“So this... this means you won’t be coming now?” Genny gulps down the words.

Sonya shakes her head. “My answer is the same as it was several nights ago, I can’t. There’s elsewhere I need to be.”

“W-w-why can’t I come with you?” A bitterness creeps into the girl’s tone. She turns towards her, chin throbbing violently and eyebrows crossing together. 

Sighing, Sonya smiles sadly, resting her hands on Genny’s shoulders.

“There’s only harder times ahead on my journey. After what you’ve been through Genny, you deserve to take a break.”

“And you don’t?” Genny suddenly exclaims, a hidden anger rising up, pooling tears hot in her eyes, “S-sisters should stick together! Not leave each other behind!”

Sonya’s smile widens, but Genny notices her swallowing back a lump. She rests a hand on top of her curly head, gently smoothing out her bow. “This is something that I can only do alone, Genny. This is… this is something that I need to do for myself and to save everyone else. It’s not like you’d slow me down, but you’re needed elsewhere too.” 

She wraps an arm around Genny’s shoulder. “There is something that only you can do, Genny. You’re a healer. You can save people, mend their wounds and their troubles. Novis needs your talents the most, not me.”

Tears run down Genny’s cheeks. The captain calls for the crew to make ready for landing.

“You’re a writer, Genny. Your stories and your characters can bring people hope, they can heal people. That’s how you can help your friends. They need you more than me right now.”

Sonya nods back towards the stern, where a grim-faced Boey rubs the shoulder of Mae, blinking back tears and wiping her eyes with her gloves. Genny sniffles.

“I’ll have your stories with me too, Genny. On those nights I’ll spend by myself, I’ll be thinking about your heroine who finds the strength to save the world… I think she has a few things she can teach me.”

Sonya winks and Genny’s face crumples. She sobs into her sister’s torso, ragged sobs angry and mournful, fists clinging to her cape. The ship thuds sharply into the dock. 

“Sonya… don’t leave me. We-we-we’ll never see each other again.”

Resting her chin on top of her pink curls, Sonya stoops down and wraps her arms around her. 

“This isn’t goodbye, Genny. I promise.” 

Genny knows that some words are not said because they are true, but because they can heal. Words can mend bones pulverized into shatters, bruises blooming blue and purple, trust abused by the cruelty of kingdoms, of fathers, mothers, of gods, hearts broken by friends, lovers. Sisters. And she wails.

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of a gift fic exchange that I did with OrangeBlossoms, which was inspired by a one-tweet fic prompt that she gave me on twitter! So thank you so much for the idea because as much as I wanted to write something for Shadows of Valentia, I had no ideas prior to this. Please check out her work as well, especially her ongoing Celica/Faye multichapter and her recently completed Maribelle/Olivia werewolf AU!
> 
> Genny tells Sonya that she looks like her mother in their supports, but I've always thought the bond between them was more like sisters than mother and daughter (it certainly doesn't help that fandom tends to label any woman character over 25 as "Mom"). I love the trope of found family so much and am glad that they both found each other, but Sonya's paralogue at the end makes me so sad! I'd like to think of Genny wandering up in the mountains to find her, but that makes me sad as well.


End file.
